About OpenSail
Institutional-grade routing.
Built for real passages.
We sailed as a family for three years — the kind of cruising where you anchor a kilometer off the beach and the chart plotter shrugs. Existing routing tools treated comfort as an afterthought, coastal depth as someone else's problem, and their own uncertainty as a secret. OpenSail is the platform we wished we had: family passages planned with commercial rigor, and full transparency into every model, every assumption, and every route the engine refuses.
Core Capabilities
Multi-Model Forecasting
GFS and ECMWF IFS atmospheres side by side, with CMEMS ocean physics and waves — and a disagreement layer that shows you where they differ instead of pretending they agree.
Comfort-Aware Routing
Four routing modes (Fastest, Balanced, Family, Comfort+) with heel angle, beam-sea discomfort, and slamming risk scoring. Every segment rated 0–10.
API-First Architecture
A clean REST API behind the same routes the app uses, with JWT auth and per-tier limits. Chartplotter-ready GPX export ships today; deeper integrations are on the roadmap.
Safety Engine
Per-segment land proofs against OSM coastline geometry, GEBCO 15-arc-second coastal depth against your draft, gust ceilings, ice detection, and configurable wind/wave limits per mode.
Real-Time Data Pipeline
Automated ingest from NOAA NOMADS and Copernicus Marine. New model runs are processed within minutes of availability — and every forecast is timestamped and flagged the moment it ages past its model's refresh cadence, so you always know how fresh the data is.
Vessel Intelligence
Polar diagram management, hull-speed estimation from vessel parameters, and per-vessel routing that accounts for your boat's actual performance envelope.
Technical Specifications
The Future: Crowdsourced Marine Intelligence
Charts miss things. Shoals shift, debris drifts, hazards appear and disappear faster than any hydrographic office can survey. OpenSail is building a crowdsourced hazard layer — sailor-reported data that makes every passage safer for the next crew.
Uncharted shallow water at exact coordinates, verified by multiple reports
Containers, deadheads, whale carcasses, fish traps — time-decaying markers
Real holding quality, swell exposure, and protection ratings from crews who've been there
GPS-derived current vectors from active voyages improve model accuracy over time
Product Roadmap
Phase 1 — Live
- GFS + ECMWF IFS + CMEMS real-time ingestion
- Isochrone routing with comfort scoring
- Model disagreement heatmap + route uncertainty band
- Departure window optimizer
- Anchor Check anchorage exposure verdicts
- Route watches — email & browser-push drift alerts
- Live voyage tracking (public + private)
- Offline forecast cache + installable PWA
- Squall-risk (CAPE) layer
- GPX / KML / GRIB export + public developer API
- Stripe billing with pause/resume; affiliate program
Phase 2 — Depth
- Offline GRIB packs for bluewater passages
- NOAA WW3 / RTOFS marine wave & current models
- NOAA OFS coastal waters and harbor-current systems
- Ensemble uncertainty visualization
- Native iOS + Android apps (Capacitor)
- SignalK instrument integration
Phase 3 — Intelligence
- AI regional downscaling (CorrDiff)
- HRRR/RRFS, ICON, AROME, HRDPS regional models
- Crowdsourced hazard reporting
- B&G / Raymarine / Garmin MFD integration
- AIS ship position overlay
- Fleet routing for commercial maritime
Ready to plan your next passage?
Free tier includes full forecast visualization and basic routing. No credit card required.